Apple's Next Stop: $600 Billion Market Cap

Tuesday

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -
Apple(:AAPL) surpassed another milestone today, and it had nothing to do with iPads, iPhones, or iPods.

Apple's market cap surpassed $500 billion in after-hours trading, just 40 days after it surpassed $400 billion in market cap.

Shares were recently up 0.17% in extended-hours trading to $536.26 according to Nasdaq.com. Shares closed the regular session, up 1.8% to $535.41.

The technology giant has surpassed each increment of $100 billion in market cap in exceedingly faster time-frames, as growth continues to surge at the Cupertino, Calif.-based company.

When former CEO Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, it took almost a decade for Apple to close a quarter at more than $100 billion in market cap, doing so in the June 2007, according to Bloomberg. It subsequently took Apple until the second quarter of 2010 to surpass $200 billion, a span of 11 quarters.

Apple reached the $300 billion mark four quarters after that, doing so in the January 2011 quarter. It took Apple just three quarters to surpass $400 billion. It has now taken just 40 days to surpass $500 billion.

Apple shares are up 32.2% year-to-date, and 51.6% in the past year.

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